ENGLISH TEXTS
G. What is your best and worst memory with Freddy Head?
Y. S-M. Worst? There isn’ t one. We had tremendous respect for each other.
BACK TO ARTICLE
02 IN FAMILY CONTI- NUITY
BY PIERRE CHAMPION
FREDDY HEAD:
THE CHAMPION JOCKEY WHO BECAME A CHAM- PION TRAINER
Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Freddy Head did not stop at a riding career. In a logical and family-driven progression, he then turned to training and proved just as successful, reaching the highest level, even if his success took a little longer to emerge.
Freddy Head trained for a quarter of a century, setting up in Gouvieux( Oise) in 1998, after hanging up his riding boots a few months earlier, and retiring at the end of the 2022 season at the age of 75. While he recorded 42 Group 1 victories as a trainer, this is all the more remarkable given that they were achieved over a period of just twelve years, from 2006 to 2018.
A gradual rise to prominence Success took a little time to come, indeed, but once it did, it multiplied. In an interview given to the magazine Jours de Cheval in the autumn of 2018, Freddy Head explained:“ I started modestly, without major owners, with around twenty horses. In the early days, I struggled. I had to prove myself. I was somewhat expected to deliver! As a result, I did not win my first Group race until September 1999, with the future NH champion Northerntown. That was in the Prix de Lutèce at Longchamp, for the Wertheimer brothers. After that, I had to wait seven years before securing my first Group 1, through Marchand d’ Or, in the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville.”
A masterpiece named Goldikova Marchand d’ Or would go on to provide Freddy Head with four additional Group 1 victories, namely two more Prix Maurice de Gheest, the Prix de l’ Abbaye de Longchamp and the July Cup in England. He was a king of sprinting, just as Goldikova was, at the same time, queen over a mile. She, for her part, amassed no fewer than 14 Group 1 victories for her mentor: three Breeders’ Cup Miles, four Prix Rothschilds, two Prix d’ Ispahan, the Prix Jacques Le Marois, the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp, the Prix de la Forêt, the Queen Anne
Stakes and the Falmouth Stakes. Quite something! Moonlight Cloud and Solow were Freddy Head’ s other Group 1 collectors, the mare winning six, including three Prix Maurice de Gheest like Marchand d’ Or, along with the Prix Jacques Le Marois, the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp and the Prix de la Forêt, while the gelding won five, in France with the Prix d’ Ispahan and, above all, abroad, where he captured, in succession, the Dubai Turf, the Queen Anne Stakes, the Sussex Stakes and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.“ I was lucky to come across horses of quality, even exceptional ones. People may say what they like, but it is good horses that make good trainers, not the other way around.” Freddy Head Modest, Freddy Head admitted towards the end of his career:“ I was above all fortunate to come across horses of quality, even exceptional ones. People may say what they like, but it is good horses that make good trainers, not the other way around. When you have in your yard a Goldikova, a Moonlight Cloud, a Marchand d’ Or or a Solow, everything immediately becomes much easier!”
Around the quartet In addition to his famous quartet, Freddy Head trained nine other Group 1 winners, namely, in alphabetical order: Call The Wind( Prix du Cadran), Charm Spirit( Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, Prix du Moulin de Longchamp,
149 # 18